Gold was our Grave - Wade, Henry

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Résumé :
Investors flocked to invest heavily in the San Podino Gold Company on the strength of a glowing prospectus. The prospectus glowed far more brightly than the Fool's Gold (iron pyrites) which was what the mine eventually yielded, and the shareholders swiftly found themselves holding the bag. Oddly, the two partners in the ill-fated enterprise escaped financially unscathed, a fact that did not go unremarked. Berrenton and Fallon were, indeed, hauled into court for fraud, but were finally acquitted for lack of evidence. Both men felt sure that the whole unfortunate incident would, in time, blow over. In time, contrariwise, it blew up. The receipt of threatening notes was given emphasis by a car crash that nearly finished off Berrenton, and then by a knifing that did finish off Fallon. Clearly, it had become a case for the Yard-more specifically, a case for Chief-Inspector Poole, whose talents for relentless and impeccable investigation had seldom been so strenuously tested. As is usual with Mr. Wade, much of the excitement of the his story stems from his intimate familiarity with actual police procedure. ...

Biographie:
Henry Wade was the pseudonym of Major Sir Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher (1887-1969), English writer and baronet, who created the character of Inspector John Poole.Wade was born in Surrey and educated at Eton and Oxford. He served in both world wars as a Grenadier Guard. The Wade pseudonym was taken from his mother's maiden name. Wade wrote both traditional and inverted mysteries, and published stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.He was one of the leading authors during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and authored over 20 novels.The English writer Timoty John Binyon said if his fellow crime writer. . . . . . there can be no doubt that Wade is one of the outstanding authors not only of the thirties, but also of the immediate post-war period. His novels are varied in plot and situation; they have wit, and his style is forceful and elegant.